Animal Kingdom-morning strategy?

[mickeyluv'r]

We've mosltly only seen the multiple FP situation when we got FP's during the EMH hours, the first one had no limit, but I think the second one did. So my guess was that was why this happened. I think it happened for Winnie the Pooh? (and the second FP was for BTMRR, I think.) but other times we had the two hour situation for the same ride. If your FP time is less than two hours away, then the time when you can get a new FP is less than two hours away, but maybe it's also tied to the posted length of the standby time, which would also make sense - if you're agreeing come back at a later time - even though the line is short. But this is sort of a guess on my part. (whic might also explain Karnak's experieince...)

Karnak - I apologize. I did only look at the posted time....and yes, I've also seen posted times that weren't accurate - usually shorter than the posted wait - but if you are in a standby line when say, the fireworks finish - and a mob of people with fastpasses enter the line - then the line for a ride like Buzz can be longer than posted times.

I have also seen the Test Track standby line change dramatically in a relatively short amount of time too. We saw an amazing CM was an artist loading people onto the ride, which seemed to be running at full capacity.

I do still wonder if there was maybe a short shutdown at EE...We did notice that when we rode it in the late am, the picture cameras were down. Still, I'm very surprised the line was that short at any time in the day. Maybe the thing to do then IS to wait a little, and try to hit EE in the afternoon????, if you're going to do standby. I'll have to test that idea next time I'm there.

One of the most notable disrepancies (between posted/actual line times) was for Space Mountain. The ride shut down. We split up, I got there first, and saw that they were just letting people on the ride. The posted wait was 60 minutes. No way was that true - it was fast becoming true, as people streamed into the ride, but for a few mintues it was not. I told DH to get in the line. DH stopped to ask a CM - letting lots of people stream by him. CM said the wait was really 60 minutes. DH got into the FP line instead...only to discover that I was correct. It made me a little mad, but oh well....It was still a good day at Disney!

 

[kytiam]

What time ADR would you have to have at Donald's to do the plan LionQueen suggested? We plan to do early morning entry and have 8:30 ADR's for Donalds. Could we get the fast pass and do KS before breakfast do you think?

Would there be any advantage to having an ADR at Donald's early--say 8:00 or so? Would you be able to beat the rush at opening to get to the fast pass machine? I can imagine huge lines just for the fast pass machines--never mind the ride itself!

 

[Imagineer22]

When I go in May/June my plan is to go straight to EE and get a fastpass and then get in the standby line (if its not too long) and experience the line. Then hopefully by the time we are done with EE the first time we can go to safari and wait in standby with no more than a 45min wait. After the safari go to EE and use the fastpass. Even if we are beyond our 1hr window they always accept them. Has anyone ever seen fastpass windows enforced when you are 'late'?

 

[ReneeJ]

This might sound stupid...but what is the standby line?

 

[HydroGuy]

This might sound stupid...but what is the standby line?

It's the regular line. There is FastPass line (for FP attractions), single rider lines on a few attractions, and then standby - the regular line.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Would there be any advantage to having an ADR at Donald's early--say 8:00 or so? Would you be able to beat the rush at opening to get to the fast pass machine? I can imagine huge lines just for the fast pass machines--never mind the ride itself!

Maybe, but I think you'd have to count on getting out of Donald's - plus walking to EE before 9am - assuming there's no EMH that day. Those may all be big if's. We've never tried to eat during EMH, but most times we've tried breakfasts in the parks, we've ended up waiting for tables - even with 9am ADR's. Our usual strategy is to do buffet breafasts as late as we can. That way, we only have to eat two meals that day. This might work better. Otherwise you may end up felling rushed. You could send one person ahead of the group maybe for fastpasses.
While it sometimes does feel like the character meals are rushed a bit, you usally end up with some wait time at the end of the meal too.
It can also be difficult to get to a breakfast on time - especially if you are counting on Disney transportation to get to the park on time.

Just to give you an idea: Last Sunday, we tried to get to Chef Mickey's for a 6:30 dinner. We were at the main resort bus stop before 5:40. FOUR Epcot busses went by before a single MK bus came through! It took over 35 minutes to get a bus to MK! The bus was packed. In fact, with the rush of people trying to board the bus (Even though we were one of the first ones at the bus stop) we almost didn't make it on the bus! People who waited at any of the other resort bus stops were completely out of luck! It was maddening! We ran from the MK bus stop to Chef M. I think we were a few minutes late. We didn't have to wait very long for our table, but it was 8:30pm before we made it over to the MK. Mind, we didn't rush our meal, we had dessert and coffee, but it was still pretty late before we were done.

 

[BibbidiBobbidiBOO]

No way! We were at AK this past Sunday as well - the standby line was much longer than 25 minutes for EE every time we were there!
There were tons of people in the park, and especially near EE!

We were there this past Sunday too! Got FP's for EE at 9:30 with a return time of 11:10. Flew right through that line and got on/off the ride in 10 mins total. But standby line was 80 minutes! I have NEVER seen AK so crowded. We had no real waits for other rides/attractions though. KS had a 20 min wait around 10ish.

 

[DISNEYROCKZ]

this is wat i do
1. get fp 4 ee
2. do standby 4 ee
3. maybe another standby for ee (line pending) if not do kjs standby
4. ee fp

 

[Priorityonecb]

Thanks to this thread, I changed my Donald's ADR to 9:30. We are going on an early morning hours day. So, we plan to arrive at 8am and hope to get in a ride on EE (for dh and dd15) and a ride on the safari before breakfast. After breakfast we plan to just enjoy the rest of the park at a relaxing pace.

 

[WNDMom]

We went Sunday, March 19 also. We got fastpasses for EE (9:40ish return) and then went through standby. It took about 5 minutes. I found three fastpasses with a 10:05 return on the ground! We looked around the gift shop for a few minutes, and then my husband walked to the safari to get fastpasses for it. We had a return time of around 10:30. then we rode EE twice more through the fastpass line. We went to Dinoland next. My husband and son rode Dinosaur and Primevel Whirl. Then we went to the Safari about 11:00. We watched It's tough to be a bug, and then snacked until the 1:00 Lion King show. We were done after that.

We went back on Thursday morning just to ride EE. We used the same strategy. Got fastpasses, rode once. Then my husband and son went through the standby line a second time. After that they used the fastpasses, and then we left the parks. We were finished by 10:15.

Sarah

 

[jennpug]

We will be going to AK on a day without EMH. I originally planned to make reservations at Donald's Breakfastasaurus before park opening...but now you have me thinking. If we did a late reservation it would probably have to be at 10:30. Has anyone had last seating reservations here before? I am just wondering if it would be really rushed since they would be preparing to take the buffet down.

 

[thelionqueen]

Would there be any advantage to having an ADR at Donald's early--say 8:00 or so? Would you be able to beat the rush at opening to get to the fast pass machine? I can imagine huge lines just for the fast pass machines--never mind the ride itself!

First of all, we will be @ AK very early, before park opens (probably about 15 mins before open). We made our ADR's @ Donald's for 9:30. This will give us plenty of time to get our FP's and ride Kilimanjaro Safaris before trekking back to have breakfast. Besides, I figure we will have worked up an appetite. I am not an early morning eater though (having a nice TS the night before).

If you are planning on an non EMH morning, I would still get there at open and do the same thing. I would give yourself 2 hours from park open to make ADR's unless you eat close to EE or KS. Just my .02

At every park we have always only been allowed 1 FP every 2 hours. If you don't use your FP in the 2 hours, you can still use it for later (any time past time listed on pass is allowed) then you can get another one. So if you FP for EE is like 10:00-11:00am, you can use it any time up until park closing, just so long as it is after the listed time.

Have a great time!!